Carrie Jaffier, our NJ Mompreneur of the Week, has always been a risk taker. When she was laid off from her accounting job, she took the opportunity to pursue her lifelong passion of baking full-time and began selling cakes and desserts from a friend’s wine store in Weehawken. A year later, the shop closed, and Carrie knew she was ready to take another risk—opening a boutique bakeshop in Hoboken. Unfortunately, Hurricane Sandy had a different idea and demolished her kitchen before it had a chance to open. But Carrie wasn’t ready to throw in the towel just yet. For two years, she built up enough capital to get her business off the ground, and in 2014, GoodieBox Bakeshop opened in Cliffside Park as a cake studio with beautiful, hand-crafted celebratory cakes, treats, and custom orders. The success of GoodieBox has taken off so much that Carrie’s added a new retail location in Rutherford, where she lives with her husband, Devon, and children, Barron, 12, and Bellamy, 10. We caught up with Carrie to discover how she knew she was ready to launch her business, Goodiebox Bakeshop’s bestselling cake flavor (hint: It involves champagne), and the cookie shop her family always pops into when they’re down the shore.
How did your business get its start? I grew up in the Pacific Northwest and moved to the East Coast, where I worked in HR for a major accounting firm in NYC. Still, even though that’s what I was doing to earn a living, I was constantly reading baking books and developing dessert recipes when I wasn’t baking—it was something I loved like nothing else! When I got laid off from my corporate job, it made me rethink what I wanted to do, and because I didn’t have a mortgage, husband, or children yet, I could take a risk and follow my heart. A friend of mine owned a wine shop in Weehawken, and she encouraged me to set up a permanent installation in her shop to sell my baked goods. It was a wonderful experience, in part because I was able to figure out the logistics of running a business on a small scale with minimal risk. That experience gave me enough knowledge and courage to launch my own brick-and-mortar business when she closed the shop. I decided on Hoboken because its dense population is my core demographic—young professionals starting families. Unfortunately, just two weeks before our grand opening, Hurricane Katrina hit Hoboken hard, completely devastating the town and my business. Insurance does not cover everything, so it took me two years to save up enough again to rent out a spot so I could start again in a new, safe-from-flooding location, which is one of the reasons I chose Cliffside Park.
What sets your business apart from other bakeries? The whole boutique bakery thing is still very new. We’re a specialty cake and treat shop, and I won’t sell anything just good enough—it has to be great. Too often, at big events, you’ll see a beautiful cake that sits on plates because it doesn’t taste as good as it looks. A $500 party cake is a major purchase. For me, it’s not enough that it’s delightful to look at; it needs to taste delicious, too. The proof is on the plate—everybody eats my cakes.
What’s the GoodieBox Bakeshop must-get? The high-quality ingredients we use for our treats make everything so delicious that it depends on who you’re asking, but two cakes tie for a bestseller. Our Chocolate Raspberry cake has been a fan favorite forever, but about a year ago, I offered a Pink Champagne and Strawberry Cream cake as a limited edition cake for Valentine’s Day, and people went crazy for it. I decided to keep it on the menu, and through the use of freeze-dried strawberries, it can taste just as great all year round. But for me, I’m all about our crispy treats. We make ours with a premium marshmallow, brown butter, extra vanilla, and Maldon Sea Salt. It breaks my heart that today’s kids don’t know how great these treats can taste since they grew up on the ones from a grocery store. My son loves the Pink Champagne bestseller, but my daughter, hands down, is a chocolate chip cookie girl.
Does your family ever get involved in your business? My kids are still young, but from time to time, my daughter helps clean the kitchen with me, and my son is excited to get behind the counter. My husband has a demanding job, but when he does have free time, he’s happy to help and has even delivered cakes for me.
Along with the Chocolate Raspberry Cake, the Pink Champagne and Strawberry Cream Cake is a fan favorite.
What are some of your favorite Garden State businesses and go-to spots? Goffin’s Hallmark Shop is a Rutherford staple. It’s a great gift shop because they have something for everyone, whether you’re looking for a seasonal item, novelty pajamas, chocolates, candles, jewelry special enough to be commemorative, and much more. Also, if you live in the Jersey City area, you know Milk Sugar Love, an exceptional boutique ice cream shop. I usually choose coffee, but I have heard that they have a new and interesting charcoal ice cream flavor on the menu—of course, I’ll be checking it out. And lastly, our family go-to is Asbury Park. It’s so hip and unique now, so when we go, we like to make a whole day out of it. We pack to spend the day at the beach, enjoy the waterpark, clean up, and head to a restaurant for dinner. Whenever we’re in the area, a stop at Sweet Dani B is always on the list. Her cookies are so good, and she might be the only baker with an Emmy to her name—she worked on The Martha Stewart Show for years and was also the show’s “resident cookie expert” before launching her own business.
What’s your best practical advice for aspiring mompreneurs? Find a purpose, identify that purpose, and then make it happen. We all struggle with mom guilt, and there will be self-doubt, too, but I believe the most significant thing you can do is take an idea and bring it to life. Your children will see you work very hard to build the life you hope for and dream about, and later on, they’ll understand that no matter what they take on in life if it’s what they really want, hard work is what it takes to get there.
For more information on Carrie Jaffier and GoodieBox Bakeshop, please see their website, Facebook, and Instagram pages.
